The Wall St. Journal (free link) assails Fitzgerald and backs Scooter Libby today.

There is all the difference in the world between seeking to respond to the substance of Mr. Wilson's charges, as Mr. Libby did, and taking revenge on him by blowing his wife's cover, which was the motive originally hypothesized by Bush critics for the Plame exposure. The more of Mr. Fitzgerald's case that becomes public, the more it looks like he has made the terrible mistake for a prosecutor of taking Joe Wilson's side in what was essentially a political fight.

Christy at Firedoglake responds. And check out the perfect photo for her post.

From yesterday's sentencing hearing of the two mob cops convicted of carrying out 8 murders for the mob while they were on the police force: Right after defendant Louis Eppolito used his right of allocution to proclaim his innocence and invite the victims' families to visit him in jail so he could prove it to them

It was at this point that without warning and certainly without permission, a large man wearing a seashell necklace suddenly stood up.

"Mr. Eppolito!" he yelled from the gallery. "Do you remember me?"

Apparently baffled, Mr. Eppolito said, "No."

"I'm the guy you put away for 19 years! I'm Barry Gibbs! You don't remember me? You don't remember what you did to me? To my family?"

The marshals quickly led the man outside, as the courtroom burst into applause.

Judge Jack Weinstein will impose a life sentence on the two crooked cops, assuming they don't win their motion for a new trial based on ineffective assistance of counsel at a June 23 hearing. The pair are claiming Bruce Cutler and Eddie Hayes were inadequate defenders. Eppolito's new lawyer is Joe Bondy.

by TChris

If it's important for an elected representative or staffer to take a "fact-finding" trip, it's reasonable for taxpayers to pay for the trip. If the trip isn't in the public interest, the politician or staffer should stay home, or pay for the trip out of his or her own pocket.

Over a 5½-year period ending in 2005, members of Congress and their aides took at least 23,000 trips -- valued at almost $50 million -- financed by private sponsors, many of them corporations, trade associations and nonprofit groups with business on Capitol Hill. ...

A nine-month analysis of congressional disclosure forms for travel from January 2000 through June 2005 done by the Center for Public Integrity, American Public Media and Northwestern University's Medill News Service turned up thousands of costly excursions -- at least 200 trips to Paris, 150 to Hawaii and 140 to Italy.

by TChris

Update: Be sure to follow the links provided in the comments by readers Nicole Black and Peter G to learn more about this case and about false confessions.

original post:

It was easier for the Rochester, NY police to elicit Douglas Warney's confession than it would have been to track down the actual killer of William Beason.

Warney, who has a recorded IQ of 68 and a history of mental health issues, was convicted based almost entirely on a confession he gave police after hours of interrogation-even though the confession was riddled with inconsistencies, he had a history of making false reports to police and the physical evidence at the time failed to link him to the crime. Warney was initially charged with capital murder, though he was ultimately sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

In papers filed to vacate Warney's conviction and release him from prison, the Innocence Project said Rochester police officers provided key details of the murder to Warney during interrogations. Once Warney repeated those details-which were not publicly available-in a confession, police and prosecutors focused on no other suspects and secured his conviction by saying nobody but the perpetrator of the crime would know such details.

Via Atrios, for those who can't attend Yearly Kos in person (like me), Air America Radio will be streaming live video, from start to finish. For $10, you can have access to all of it. Sign up here.

And check out actor Will Keenan's latest promo for Yearly Kos.

He is so cool.

For those who would like to see the famed Owl Farm in Woody Creek, Colorado, home of the late, great gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, painstakingly preserved and tended to by his beautiful wife Anita, here's a little movie I made of our visit there Saturday during NORML's Aspen Legal Seminar. Since it is 20 megabytes, I put it on youtube where it isn't as clear as the original, but you'll get the idea. It also looks better on a Mac than it does on a PC.

Update: Much clearer version is now here.

I took a few of the photos, but most were taken by Timothy Tipton. There are no titles, but the first photo is of Anita and Hunter's son, Juan Thompson. The second is Hunter's kitchen, from which he managed his world. The big, grinning guy in the middle of the movie is Aspen Sheriff Bob Braudis -- one of Hunter's closest friends and my favorite Sheriff ever. The last photo of the pig may be at the Woody Creek Tavern, Hunter's favorite watering hole. And as you can see from the baby photos, it was a family affair.

by TChris

Some judges are disinclined by nature to credit the testimony of a defense witness, but this is beyond belief:

The chief judge in Saddam Hussein's trial said Monday four defense witnesses have been jailed on suspicion of perjury, drawing accusations from defense lawyers that the court was trying to intimidate witnesses.

Duh, yeah. Jail is an effective weapon of intimidation. So is thuggery.

The defense lawyers said Iraqi soldiers beat several of the witnesses during their arrest May 31.

Lawyers for Jose Padilla have filed a motion to suppress evidence and statements in his federal terrorism case. He alleges that the FBI failed to advise the Court in its 2002 affidavit for his arrest as a material witness that statements taken from one of the government's witnesses was obtained through torture, and another witness provided statements while "heavily medicated."

For the second time in two years, the U.S. Senate is debating a constitutional ban on gay marriage. Today, Colorado Senator Wayne Allard argued in favor of the constitutional Amendment. A procedural vote may be held tomorrow.

"It's not about politics or discrimination," Allard told colleagues on the floor of the U.S. Senate. "It's about marriage and democracy."

I don't understand the connection between marriage and democracy. I thought in a democracy, all people are equal. If marriage is a democratic value, then shouldn't everyone be able to choose their spouse?

The Democrats have their talking points in order. Instead of arguing against a prohibition of same-sex marriage, they are talking about all the critical issues the Senate should be debating instead of marriage.

Duke University has announced the lacrosse team will resume playing this fall. Stricter conditions will be in place.

"The reinstatement is inevitably probationary. ... (If) we did not allow these players the chance to take responsibility for creating a new history for their sport at Duke, we would be denying another very fundamental value: the belief in the possibility of learning from experience, the belief in education itself."

by TChris

As TalkLeft discussed here, the North Carolina Bar accused two prosecutors (one of whom is now a judge) of concealing evidence and encouraging perjury in a case that sent Jonathan Hoffman to death row. The Bar was unable to impose discipline because the misconduct wasn't revealed until after the time for making disciplinary complaints against them had expired.

The N.C. Bar's counsel asked District Attorney Michael Parker to investigate potential criminal charges against the two former prosecutors. But one of those prosecutors helped Parker get his current job, and Parker really shouldn't be investigating misconduct in Hoffman's first trial when Parker's office intends to try Hoffman a second time.

Here's the latest development:

by TChris

If Congress won't investigate the president, it's up to the ABA. The trade group for lawyers has already investigated domestic spying. Now it's tackling the president's reliance on signing statements.

The board of governors of the American Bar Association voted unanimously yesterday to investigate whether President Bush has exceeded his constitutional authority in reserving the right to ignore more than 750 laws that have been enacted since he took office.

The signing statements task force includes former Rep. Mickey Edwards, a Republican from Oklahoma, who explains:

"I think one of the most critical issues in the country right now is the extent to which the White House has tried to expand its powers and basically tried to cut the legislative branch out of its own constitutionally equal role, and the signing statements are a particularly egregious example of that."